


Not Yet

by TheSmudgyOne



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-06
Updated: 2014-07-06
Packaged: 2018-02-07 15:56:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1904979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSmudgyOne/pseuds/TheSmudgyOne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Blue is sad because she knows it's Gansey's last birthday. Noah tries to cheer her up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not Yet

**Author's Note:**

> The Raven Cycle and all characters belong to Maggie Stiefvater.

When Noah materialized in Monmouth, he discovered Blue, sitting on the couch. She was wearing an Aglionby Crew Team sweatshirt and she was crying. When she saw Noah, she wiped her nose on the sleeve.  
"Sorry."  
Noah sat down next to her. He snuggled up next to her. He buried his nose in her hair, which was damp and smelled like conditioner.  
"Do you want me to get you a strawberry pop-tart?"  
"No, thanks. Just stay here. Let's just stay here until tomorrow is over."  
Noah nodded. "Okay."  
Tomorrow was Gansey's birthday.

They ate lunch at Nino's, as Gansey had insisted they do - "nothing fancy, I'll get enough of that tonight with mom and dad" - and stuck candles in the pizza. After that, they would go to Cabeswater, and play with Gansey's new $5,000.00 gadgets. They all sang "happy birthday" while a classic rock station blared out of the Nino's speakers and the steam from the oven-fresh pizza wafted up into their faces. Noah watched Blue's face as Gansey blew out the candles. She looked like she was already at a funeral.  
"Hey, Blue." He leaned over and spoke in her ear. "What did the snail say when he rode on the tortoise's back?" No answer. "He said, 'wheeeee!'"  
Blue stared down. She was shredding some sort of flower into bits under the table.  
Noah tried again. He whispered,  
"Hey, Blue. Want to know what Gansey does when he thinks he's alone in Monmouth?"  
No answer.  
Something had to be done.   
"Blue, will you please take a picture of Gansey and me?"  
At this, finally, Blue looked up. She frowned.  
"You think you show up on photographs?"  
"Of course. I know I do."  
"Noah, you do not. I know for a fact that ghosts do not show up on photographs."  
Gansey, who had been explaining to Adam how some sort of expensive magic-detecting gadget worked, jumped into the conversation.  
"Noah! Did I hear right? Are you finally letting someone take a picture of you? Now, this is a birthday present!" Noah had never let any of them take a picture of him before. When they tried, he just went invisible.  
Ronan snickered. "Of course he is. Blue asked him."  
Noah didn't blush - but that was only because of a ghost. He wanted to pull the bottle of glitter out of his pocket in and throw it into the air, because he already knew, he just knew it: he was going to make her smile!

*

Blue took a digital camera from Gansey's hands.  
"You got pizza grease on it." She dabbed at it with a napkin. "You know, Noah's not going to show up." She said it because she hoped that maybe he would. It would be nice, for once, to be wrong about the future.  
"Just the two of us for this first one!" Noah said, like he hadn't heard her. He threw an arm around Gansey's shoulder, and Gansey did the same.  
Blue looked at the camera screen.  
For a second, that feeling returned. The feeling she had most of the time now - of a hiking boot slowly, slowly treading on her heart.  
But then she shifted her attention from the left side of the screen - Noah's side - to the right side of the screen. Gansey's side. And all at once, she had to cover her mouth with her hand to hide her expression.  
She looked up at Noah, and Noah winked.   
It was nothing. It should have been nothing. But she could barely keep from bursting out laughing.  
"Do you want be to show you how to change the camera settings, Jane?" Gansey asked, ever pompous.  
Blue took the picture. She wouldn't let anyone see it.  
"One more!" she said. She started directing them. "Gansey, pretend to feed Noah a slice of pizza." "Gansey, pick up Noah." "Gansey and Noah, do that cheesy thing where you both point at  each other."  
"Can we go now?" Gansey asked. "Cabeswater is waiting!" He threw his arms into the air like he'd just scored a touchdown. "Cabeswater!"  
"Just one more." She smiled. He still had that look in his eyes when she snapped a picture of him high-fiving Noah.  
"Now can I see them?" He asked.  
"Nope!" Blue pulled the camera away.  
"But it's my birthday!" he said, mock wounded.  
"I'm making you a present with these," she said.   
Noah giggled and clapped his hands.  
The "present" was more of a present to herself: She was going to make an instagram account with them, and post them before Gansey could delete them. In every single one, Noah was invisible - and in every single one, Gansey was utterly ridiculous.  
He had his arm out to the side, grinning charmingly for the camera - but with the arm wrapped around empty air, he looked like he'd been snapped in the middle of an awkward transition in some sort of mime performance. In the next picture, he was laughing and feeding pizza to empty air. He was holding empty air over his head. He was high-fiving empty air.  
He was light, free of worry. His eyes were bright with the day ahead of him. He was her favorite Gansey here. And he was not gone yet.


End file.
